Quotes (923).

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that infants are forgiven of original sin when a priest pours water over the baby in the sacrament of baptism. There are two serious problems with this practice. First, there is no occurrence of infant baptism in the New Testament, and second, one must believe in Jesus in order to be forgiven. Clearly a baby cannot respond in faith to the Gospel and thus be forgiven.

–          Mike Gendron

Quotes (845)

Catholics are taught to believe a miracle has occurred when the inner essence of the host (wafer) is changed into the body and blood of Christ even though it still looks and tastes like a wafer. Can you think of any miracle in the Bible that never appeared to happen?

– Mike Gendron

Quotes (831)

The Apostle Paul commended the Berean Church for using Scriptures to verify the truthfulness of his teaching. It is clear that since an apostle, who penned over half the New Testament was tested by the Bible, all religious teachers must come under the same scrutiny. Have you checked the teachings of your religious leaders with the Bible?

–          Mike Gendron

Quotes (824)

Catholics who believe the literal interpretation of John 6 face a serious dilemma. Both the “eating and drinking” and “believing in Jesus” produce the same result—eternal life. What if a person “believes” but does not “eat or drink?” Or what if a person “eats and drinks” but does not “believe?” Does this person have eternal life because he met one of the requirements but not the other? . . . God forbids anyone from consuming the blood of a sacrifice. If Jesus were teaching the multitudes to literally drink His blood, He would be teaching them to disobey God.

–          Mike Gendron

Quotes (810)

Knowledge of the truth will bring division. Those who follow Jesus by abiding in his Word will be divided from those who do not. . . . Doctrine divides believers from unbelievers. Without doctrine there will be no division.

–          Mike Gendron

One of the oddest videos around.

This is one of those videos that’s beyond words. It leaves you wondering what in the world did I just witness?

A Little Leaven calls it “Misadventures in Liturgical Dance,” but I call it “A Romish Mess.”

Quotes (746)

Scripture declares clearly, and without a doubt, that there is only one cleansing agent for the sin of believers. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). Yet, Rome diverts its people from the Savior’s blood and instead offers a place called purgatory as a dreadfully contrived hoax.

– Mike Gendron

DefCon is now on FaceBook.

Defending Contending has finally joined the world of social networking. We are now on Facebook and you can ‘friend’ us here.

A Catholic Leap

There is little doubt that many Roman Catholic doctrines simply aren’t in the Bible. They’ve been introduced by the Roman Catholic Church over the centuries. Much as Muslims make weak attempts to find prophecies about Muhammad in the Bible, Catholics grasp at straws to find support for their doctrines in the Bible.

I recently had a conversation with a couple of knowledgeable Catholics. I started by discussing the fact that the Bible blatantly contradicts some of their beliefs. Specifically, they claimed that atheists “of good will” could end up in heaven. There are dozens of verses that prove that line of thinking wrong, and I quoted a few to them. Their response was that they don’t care what I say about the Bible, because according to Catholic teaching, no one is able to interpret the Bible outside the authority of Rome.

This was the first time I’d heard that from a Catholic, and it turns out that it really is the standard teaching of Rome, and it’s based on a misinterpretation of 2 Peter 1:20. Later, they mentioned that there really is no infallible interpretation of this verse, so I’m not sure what authority they have to give any interpretation of that verse.

I showed them Acts 17:11, which describes how the Bereans were commended for scrutinizing Paul’s teaching with the Scripture. I asked them why the Bereans were able to verify Paul’s teaching with the Scripture, but today I am unable to verify Rome’s teaching with Scripture. They never directly answered my question. I gave up asking the question when the only “answer” provided was:

Why did Paul have to “check in” with the Apostles and have them lay hands on him to continue his ministry?

That has absolutely nothing to do with my question. Honest, knowledgeable answers generally don’t start with a “why” and end with a question mark.

They do think that I should verify the doctrines of Rome, but not by searching Scripture. I should determine the truth of Rome’s claims by verifying that their doctrines haven’t changed over the last 2,000 years, and I should do this by reading church fathers. (They were kind enough to give me a list of church fathers to check out.)

But this only leads to more questions. If I’m not trustworthy enough to interpret Scripture, why am I trustworthy enough to interpret the writings of church fathers? Why should I read the second generation (or later) of Christian beliefs when the Bible provides the first generation? If two church fathers disagree (there are many early “Christians” who were outright heretics), which one is trustworthy?

There is no good way to test the Catholic Church. Bottom line: I’m supposed to become a Catholic, because the pope says so.

Trust me.

At the root of this disagreement is the epistemology of Catholics and Evangelicals. Evangelicals believe the Bible is the only source for absolute truth, and Catholics have the Bible plus their tradition. The problem is that the Bible is insufficient to arrive at modern Catholic doctrines (if not contradictory to those doctrines), and there is no other infallible, inerrant source to attest to Catholic doctrines. In order to buy into the teaching of Rome, you must take a blind leap of faith.

Quotes (679)

http://easterpeople.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/im-a-charismatic-baptist-reformed-calvinist/

The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity.

– Charles Spurgeon

1834 – 1892

Quotes (651)

Catholics are totally dependent upon priests for their salvation. It is the priest who is said to cause regeneration and justification in baptism (CCC 1992, 1213); absolve mortal sins in the confessional; dispense the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist; impart the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Confirmation; and offer the sacrifice of the Mass for souls suffering in purgatory. It is no wonder why Catholics trust their religion and their priests as mediators to usher them into Heaven.

– Mike Gendron

Quotes (648)

J. D. WatsonRoman Catholicism is the most evil perversion of Christianity Satan could devise. It is pagan, wicked, and deceptive. It is a works-oriented system that perverts the works of Christ in many blasphemous ways (the papacy being one) and was the reason the Protestant Reformation was necessary. How sad it is that many “evangelicals” today are trying to undo it.

– J.D. Watson

E.T. phone Rome.

Vatican E.T. Not content with being restricted to spreading their damnable false gospel on earth, the Vatican is now looking to the sky.

Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church.

“The questions of life’s origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration,” said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, an astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory.

Funes, a Jesuit priest, presented the results Tuesday of a five-day conference that gathered astronomers, physicists, biologists and other experts to discuss the budding field of astrobiology — the study of the origin of life and its existence elsewhere in the cosmos.

Today top clergy, including Funes, openly endorse scientific ideas like the Big Bang theory as a reasonable explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter.

Earlier this year, the Vatican also sponsored a conference on evolution to mark the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species.”

The event snubbed proponents of alternative theories, like creationism and intelligent design, which see a higher being rather than the undirected process of natural selection behind the evolution of species.

Read the entire article here.

The more Rome changes, the more it stays the same.

You can tell a man by the friends he keeps and likewise you can tell a church by the associations it keeps. So this Reformation Day, let us take a stroll through the halls of Roman Catholicism’s past and present as a simple reminder why true Biblical Christianity will never be at peace with the false religious system and counterfeit Christian organization of Rome.

torture_inquisition

inquisition

catholic_iquisition_torture

burned_at_the_stake

Pope and false religion

priests-salute

NaziPriestsSaluteHitler

Hitler-with-Muller

hitler_cardinal4

Pope and Castro

Obama Vatican

Pope and TBN

Pope and Dali Lama

Pope and Islam

Pope and Yassir Arafat

Catholicism and Islam

Pope and Arafat Greet

Arafat and Pope

Paul John Paul II Kissing the Koran

Pope and Chavez

VATICAN SAUDI KING

INterfaith

Pope Jewish

Pope Mosque

Interfaith Pope

Ecumenical Pope

Pope UN

The immaculate deception.

Immaculate Deception

The following is an article by James Swan refuting an attempted defense of Roman Catholicism’s great heresy: The Immaculate Conception. I found the timing of this to be highly apropos in light of a continued discussion that is taking place on this very subject on the comment thread from this post.

How To Prove The Immaculate Conception Without Biblical Proof

10/04/2009 – James Swan

The constant dilemma of the Roman Catholic apologist is to insert doctrines into the Bible that aren’t there to begin with. Their argumentation of meandering logic seeks to demonstrate: a) The Bible doesn’t contradict the doctrine being inserted; b)There are indirect Bible passages that if interpreted by first granting the validity of the extra-biblical doctrine, actually support the extra biblical doctrine. Catholic apologist John Martignoni’s most recent newsletter is a perfect example. He presents “Challenge/Response/Strategy” in defending Mary’s immaculate conception. This argumentation is for his upcoming book on basic Roman Catholic apologetics.

In Martignoni’s argumentation, the immaculate conception must first be brought to the biblical text. That is, by a plain reading of the Bible, one would not read from Genesis to Revelation and conclude Mary was born sinless and remained free of sin her entire life. Martignoni’s apologetic then is to prove the immaculate conception is not disproved by anything the Bible states, and that certain texts can be utilized as indirect proofs. I outlined Martignoni’s hypothetical challenges and his responses in the order he presented them. My counter responses are in red.

Argument 1: The Bible doesn’t use the words immaculate conception. Therefore it is an unbiblical concept.

Martignoni’s Response: The words Trinity and Incarnation are not found in the Bible either.

Swan’s Counter: I know of no serious Protestant apologist that actually uses such an argument. The question is not whether the phrase is found in the Bible, but are there specific direct passages that substantiate such a concept? To substantiate such a concept as a clear teaching of scripture one needs direct passages, not a few vague inference passages.

Argument 2: Trinity and Incarnation are concepts supported by the Bible, the immaculate conception has no such support.

Martignoni’s response: There is no passage in Scripture which directly states that Mary was not conceived without original sin, or that she was not immaculately conceived.

Swan’s counter: Aside from the fact this response doesn’t follow from the argument, this type of argument can [be] applied to many individuals within the Bible. The Bible doesn’t say Priscilla was conceived without original sin, or that she was not immaculately conceived, yet we don’t assume she was. A lack of evidence does not bolster or further an argument.

Argument 3: Romans 3:9-12 and 3:22-23 says all are under the power of sin and that all have sinned, therefore Mary sinned.

Martignoni’s response (four points):
A. Such an argument does not address Mary being immaculately conceived, it addresses whether or not she was sinless her entire life, which is a different question.

Swan’s Counter: Under the heading of “The Immaculate Conception,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long” (CCC 493), so it is not a different question.

B. There is no passage in Scripture which directly states that Mary was not conceived without original sin, or that she was not immaculately conceived.

Swan’s Counter: Luke 1:35 positively says Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. There is no such verse about Mary’s conception. There is no verse that states Mary must be sinless in order to bear the Son of God. Martignoni offers no similar positive evidence that would separate her from the rest of humanity described in Romans 3.

C. Some Protestants believe things not found in the Bible. Catholics likewise should be allowed to believe things not directly stated in the Bible. Example: The Bible nowhere says contraception is okay, yet most protestants believe it is.

Swan’s Counter: Martignoni’s argument would not work against Protestants who deny both the immaculate conception and contraception. To prove some Protestants may believe something not found in the Bible does nothing more than prove an inconsistency. To prove such offers no positive support for an extra-biblical belief in the immaculate conception.

D. Some Scripture passages indirectly support the Immaculate Conception, like Genesis 3:14-15. Mary is the woman described. Enmity exists between Satan and the woman. Martignoni says, “If you have sin in you, can you say that there is enmity between you and Satan?” Only a sinless being can be at enmity with Satan. Therefore Mary was not conceived in sin, and did not commit personal sin.

Swan’s counter: This is Martignoni’s only attempt to present positive argumentation. He candidly admits his Biblical proof is indirect. The argument has an unproven assumption: only a sinless person can be an enemy of Satan, at war with Satan. But, there has always been enmity between believers and Satan. One does not have to be sinless to be at war with Satan. Why would Paul exhort the Ephesians to put on the full armor of God “so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes“? Wouldn’t he first clarify that in order to put on the armor, one must be entirely sinless? Similarly, why would Peter exhort Christians to resist the Devil (1 Peter 5:8), or James to resist the devil (James 4:7)? Here we have direct proof that all Christians are enemies of Satan, at war with Satan. John warns us that “if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves.” Christians are sinners, and they are at war with Satan. Nothing could be clearer.

Martignoni states that he was limited with the amount of time he had to put into this argumentation. Then again, he states this argumentation is for a book (as if the world needs yet another book repeating arguments already put forth by other writers). If he’s going to continue with a similar line of reasoning, perhaps he should back up a bit and explain his proofs are not proofs, but inferences. He claims to be presenting “biblical, historical, and logical perspectives” as to the immaculate conception. His reasoning though amounts to inferences and leaps of logic read into the text.

HT: Isaiah

Quotes (626)

Rome never changes. Rome will never admit that she has made mistakes. She burned our English Reformers 300 years ago. She tried hard to stamp out by violence the Protestantism which she could not prevent spreading by arguments. If Rome had only the power, I am not sure that she would not attempt to play the whole game over again.

– J.C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

Quotes (618)

http://easterpeople.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/im-a-charismatic-baptist-reformed-calvinist/

But the man Christ can be but in one place, and he is now at the right hand of the Majesty on high. It is absurd, it is horrible, both to faith and to reason, to say that Christ’s body is eaten, and that his blood is drunk in tens of thousands of places wherever priests choose to offer what they call “the mass.” A “Mass” of profanity, indeed, it is!

– Charles Spurgeon

1834 – 1892

Introducing A.C.E.

Apologetics

We are unveiling a new feature on DefCon: Answering Common Errors.

This will be a quick reference apologetics page that answers many of the falsehoods and errors levied against the Christian faith.

It features a common error with a link to a previous DefCon post with the answer.

New entries will be added regularly so check back often. If you know of any past posts featured on DefCon that you think should be included in this list, let us know.

You can check out the new A.C.E. page by clicking here, or access it later from the tab above the header of the DefCon blog between About Us and Rules of Engagement.

Nada Scriptura?

Maturity

The world’s false religions and cults have many similarities, and one common thread among them all is their disbelief / distrust / disdain for the Bible.

And among these groups, five stand out as surprising when you consider that they believe themselves to be Christian, and as everybody knows, “Christians” believe the Bible . . . don’t they?

Whether it’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses who discourage individual understanding of the Scriptures . . .

Thus the Bible is an organizational book and belongs to the Christian congregation as an organization, not to individuals, regardless of how sincerely they may believe that they can interpret the Bible. For this reason the Bible cannot be properly understood without Jehovah’s visible organization in mind.

The Watchtower / October 1, 1967 / Page 587

. . . even going so far as to employ scare tactics that you’ll become apostate for reading the Bible on your own or in a small group:

They say that it is sufficient to read the bible exclusively, either alone or in small groups at home. But, strangely, through such ‘Bible reading,’ they have reverted right back to the apostate doctrines that commentaries by Christendom’s clergy were teaching 100 years ago…

The Watchtower / August 15, 1981/Pages 28-29


Or whether it’s the Mormons spreading their seeds of doubt . . .

It was apparent that many important points touching the salvation of men, had been taken from the Bible, or lost before it was compiled.

Joseph Smith /Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith /Page 10

. . . and blatantly attacking the Word of God:

This congregation heard brother O. Pratt scan the validity of the Bible, and I thought by the time he got through, that you would scarcely think a Bible worth picking up and carrying home, should you find one in the streets.

Brigham Young / Journal of Discourses / Volume 3 Page 116

Or whether it’s the liberal churches who “take the Bible seriously but not literally.”

Liberality

Or whether it’s the Emergents whose greatest “virtue” is ambiguity, and whose mantra is did God really say that?” all the while dismissing the importance of the very Bible they claim to believe:

This is part of the problem with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be a belief that “Scripture alone” is our guide. It sounds nice, but it is not true. In reaction to abuses by the church, a group of believers during a time called the Reformation claimed that we only need the authority of the Bible. But the problem is that we got the Bible from the church voting on what the Bible even is… When people say that all we need is the Bible, it is simply not true.

Rob Bell / Velvet Elvis / Pages 67-68

I grew up thinking that we’ve figured out the Bible, that we knew what it means. Now I have no idea what most of it means. And yet I feel like life is big again—like life used to be black and white, and now it’s in color.

Kristen Bell (Rob Bell’s wife) / Christianity Today / November 2004

Or whether it’s the Roman Catholic Church who in times past would burn you at the stake for merely possessing the Scriptures in your native tongue, but who now settle for pompously looking down their noses at you for daring to hold God’s inspired, infallible Word above that of their fallible, uninspired popes, priests, and man-made traditions.

Stake

So, whether you’re discouraged from reading your Bible, or the Bible is impugned so that you conclude it can’t be trusted, the desired result is always the same: Once you put down the word of God, or place some other “authority” above it, heresy will always follow.

As Gary Gilley aptly said in his book This Little Church Went to Market:

Today, virtually every heresy found in the Christian ranks can be traced back to some form of rejection of the Bible as God’s final authority. It may be pragmatism (which adds success to the Bible); mysticism (which adds experience); tradition (which adds the past): legalism (which adds man’s rules); or philosophy such as psychology (which adds man’s wisdom). The end result is all the same: the Word of God takes a back seat to the inventions and imaginations of men.

Essentially, all these false religions and cults have one goal in mind: To get you to stop trusting the words of the living God and instead, put your trust in their organization. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and we will trust His word over the lies, rumors, heresies, doubts, and traditions of these false organizations. But what about you? When the question of the authority of Scripture comes up are you going to believe the empty words of false prophets, teachers, popes, and organizations, or the words of God Himself?

GalaxyFor the most part these counterfeit groups would agree that God created the heavens and the earth and that He is the architect of everything from the vastness of the galaxies yet to be discovered by man, to the tiniest microorganisms that are more complex than any supercomputers that we could ever build. And with few exceptions I’m confident that these groups also believe that God sustains His creation and that He’s omnipotent, omniscient, and all powerful.

Yet ironically they do not believe He had or has the power to sustain and preserve His word from generation to generation. How convenient for them that the God of all creation has this one weakness (that their popes, prophets, and programs can help God out with).

God was very clear about the tenacity of His Word: It is forever settled in Heaven (Psalm 119:89), it endures forever (Isaiah 40:8, 1 Peter 1:25), the smallest letter or stroke of the law shall not pass (Matthew 5:18), and Heaven and earth will pass away before His word does (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 16:17, Luke 21:33).

Yet the false prophets will have you believe that the sovereign God who created and sustains the universe simply could not ensure the preservation of His own Word, but their “new revelation” on the other hand, is accurate and can be trusted in spite of the fact that their doctrines keep being added to, subtracted from, and changing from prophet to prophet, from leader to leader, and from pope to pope.

Bible The Scriptures are for our instruction and to provide hope (Romans 15:4), for teaching (Deuteronomy 11:9, 2 Chronicles 17:9), for equipping Christians for good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and it gives us assurance of salvation (1 John 5:13).


Furthermore, God’s Word
is more precious than silver and gold (Psalm 119:72), it’s a lamp, a light, and the way of life (Proverbs 6:23), it’s a lamp unto our feet (Psalm 119:105), it teaches us to fear the Lord (Deuteronomy 17:19), it purifies (Psalm 119:9), it gives understanding to the simple (Psalm 119:130), it teaches us so that we can walk in His paths (Isaiah 2:3), it sanctifies (John 17:17, Ephesians 5:26), it testifies to Jesus Christ (John 5:39), it leads us to Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:24), and it judges our thoughts and attitudes (Hebrews 4:12).

DeconstructionWhen you consider what God’s Word does, you can see why false religions and cults wish to separate you from it! If they can drive a wedge between you and the word of God, then they will have successfully separated you from the only source by which to measure truth. Then you are easy prey for their new revelations, their other gospels (Galatians 1:6-9), and their false christs.

So, I have three questions:

1. The Bereans were commended for searching the Scriptures to assure that what the Apostle Paul was teaching was accurate (Acts 17:11). Why are these false religions and cults advising you not to take up the Scriptures to see if what they’re teaching is true?

2.The Apostle Paul told us that our struggle is against spiritual powers and forces of wickedness (Ephesians 6:11-12) and in this fight he tells us to put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:13), in which one of these is the sword of the Spirit–the very word of God. Why would false religions and cults want to disarm you from one of the best offensive and defensive weapons God has provided the Believer and instructed him to wield?

3. Jesus Christ, the Apostles, and the Disciples read the Scriptures and quoted from them regularly. In fact, when Satan tried to thwart Jesus’ mission on earth by twisting Scripture, Jesus quoted from the Scripture each time in rebuttal, effectively disarming the father of lies with the words of truth (Matthew 4:1-11). If the Scriptures were good enough and valuable enough for Jesus Christ and the Apostles, why do the false religions and cults say that they’re not good enough for you?

CultsFor all the reasons above it is apparent why false religions and cults reject the Bible and the idea of Sola Scriptura. When those groups claiming to be “Christian” are compared to the Light of the Scriptures they always come up short and their errors, falsehoods, heresies, and soul-damning doctrines of demons are exposed. If they can get you to doubt the Bible, they will quickly fill that void with their own “authority.”

Remember, we were never told that man shall live on the Church, the prophets, or popes, but we are told that man shall live on every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” – John 8:31-32

________________________________________________________________________________

For more on the Bible see : Bible Reference Notes – The Holy Scriptures


“Thankful to have been raised a Roman Catholic” by Brother Michael.

San Peter Square Wide Shot

Brother Michael responded to a comment on this post that I thought was worthy of reprinting here.

In reading Joanna’s comments and perusing the fodder titled, “Sola Scriptura – A Blueprint for Anarchy”, I must digress and say how thankful I am that I was raised in the religion of Rome. Raised by a multi-generational Catholic family from a babe on upwards to nearly 25 years of age. Here, I consider myself most blessed to have sat under the feet of nuns and priests being educated by them from grammar school through high school, to have served as a faithful alter boy, to have been baptized, catechized, confirmed and even married as a RC. I am thankful that I was deemed a faithful follower of Mother Rome and was looked upon highly by large and small in her community.

I am thankful that I had my Marian statue and faithfully prayed many a night my decades on the rosaries. My homemade cross (from my 1st “holy” communion) I hung with pride in my bedroom where every Palm Sunday I would take the new palm branches and drape them over it for another year.

So too am I thankful that I use to look down with disdain on those “born again” Jesus wackos (the way I sadly felt at the time) since I “knew” that ONLY Catholics were going to heaven. And of course for no other reason but that we were faithful, card-carrying Catholics. This party line I parroted like a well trained student of my Jesuit and Franciscan pedagogues.

Why am I so thankful? I am thankful because I KNOW the truth about mother Rome. I know the truth whereby the outrageous claims made by RC apologists, the lies, distortions and incredible falsehoods are laid bare before my eyes. 33,000 or 330,000 denominations doesn’t really matter as it is pure straw-man blather. The so-called unity of Mother Rome is a smoke screen; it is like an old Hollywood western movie set where once you walk into the apparent salon or hotel, you realize all you have is a thin facade with nothing behind it but empty space. This is Rome’s unity, a paper thin facade.

Here, I challenge anyone to take a poll of their local RC parish, a poll not in paper alone but by looking at life choices and you will find discord and disharmony that will begin to show the heart of the RC religion. People divided about sex before marriage (and most partaking), divided about birth control, divided about woman being priests, divided about divorce/remarriage/annulments, divided about priests marrying, divided about girls being alter boys eh I mean alter people, divided about homosexuality, divided about the liturgy, divided about Vatican II, divided about purgatory, divided about people of other “faiths” going to heaven, divided about evolution, divided about Mary, divided about the current pope, divided about abortionists (e.g. Nancy Pelosi and others) receiving the holy wafer, divided about tithing, divided about praise and worship, divided about fund raising, divided about …. fill in the blanks.

Oh – but we have unity because all these people for one hour (hopefully less as a priest is always commended if he can get you out in less than an hour) who gather in a building and like trained puppets on cue sit down, stand up, cross themselves, kneel, recite words back and forth, shake hands, walk an aisle, sing a song, and walk back out the door being elated the ordeal is over for another week.

I am also thankful that I know the heart of those cute Catholic boys and girls who look so prim and proper in their uniforms where it is hard to think they could do anything wrong. Oh what a lie! Thankful because I was there where the sin that me and my faithful heaven bound (eh – well probably purgatory bound first) Catholic friends partook in was no different than that of our agnostic/atheist cohorts; possibly even worse in many respects. Mocking the nuns, swilling beer like it was water, drugs (even on our HS bus), stealing, cheating, sex, mouths like sailors and more bore ample witness to the fact that we were dead in trespasses and sins regardless of the lies the priests fed us with.

Oh- wait, but we were Catholics and on our way to heaven because we said our five “our father’s” and ten “hail mary’s” so as merit our forgiveness after our 5 minute penance. Lies damnable lies!!!

I could go on and on how I witness the same today being surrounded by DEAD Catholic families and friends who HATE the gospel and Lord of Glory and LOVE their sin. And what incenses me the most is that in Rome Jesus Christ is NEVER enough for it is the organization, the 501c-3 den of iniquity that is always preached as the way of salvation. This is the heart of every RC apologist for if they preach Jesus alone the gig will be up and the power over men’s souls will be vanquished. And so it will be…

“And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication”